Crown of the Continent guitar world finalists to compete
<p>Collin Cook from Virginia performed Jazz/Fusion at the Six String Theory semi-finals at Flathead Lake Lodge on Aug. 26. Cook was one of the 12 semi-finalists to compete on Sunday.</p>
After 12 rounds of cuts between hundreds of Youtube video submissions from musicians in 52 countries, six finalists will compete for the top spot in the Six String Theory Guitar Competition tonight at the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m.
This is the second year that Bigfork has hosted the world finals for the Six String Theory competition.
“A 4-year-old can put themselves on Youtube with a cell phone camera and on up to a 90-year-old, so you can imagine the variety of talents on Youtube, so to have a designated Youtube run competition that really highlights the talents of young musicians is a good thing for them and for us,” Lee Ritenour, creator of the Six String Theory Competition, and Crown of the Continent performer, said. “We are creating opportunities for the ones that are really talented.”
Those opportunities come in the form of four scholarships to Berklee College of Music, guitar company endorsements, and the potential to be signed by Concord Records and do live performances. There is close to $650,000 worth of scholarships and prizes, up from just three years ago when Crown of the Continent began with $100,000 worth of prizes and one Berklee scholarship.
“There’s a ton of talented instrumentalists in the world playing music but not all of them get exposure,” Ritenour said. “They can put videos out, but it is just one big blog of stuff out there. If we can help focus and bring attention to a select number of players that are outstanding in their field, that helps get them established in their careers.”
The semi-finals for the competition had 12 guitarists perform at Flathead Lake Lodge on Sunday. They played two songs each and the top six guitarists advanced to the finals where an overall winner will be selected at the end of the final competition. Semi-finalists included six Americans, two Canadians, and one from Israel, France, Brazil, and Bulgaria.
The semi-finals on Sunday were between six music genres: rock, blues, jazz, acoustic, classical, and country. The finalists include jazz/fusion muisician Yoav Eshed from Israel, accoustic musician Jonathan Finley from the U.S., blues musician Rami Halperin from the U.S., classical musician Karl Marino from Canada, country musician Jamie Dupuis from the U.S., and rock musician Alex Sill from the U.S.
Tonight’s finalists are the top performers in each genre and a panel of judges will pick the overall top performer.
Cost of attendance is $50.
In other Crown of the Continent news
• Grammy nominee jazz guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Jorge Roeder and percussionist Tupac Mantilla will perform jazz, blues, folk and world music at Flathead Lake Lodge on Thursday at 8 p.m. Jody Fisher will be the opening act.
• Chris Hillman of The Byrds will perform original tunes and old favorites with multi-instrumentalist Herb Pederson at Flathead Lake Lodge on Saturday at 7 p.m. Matt Smith and Friends will be the opening performance.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.cocgui tarfoundation.tix.com or by calling 249-4671. They are also available at the following local Flathead Valley locations: Nancy O’s, Donna Shanahan Interiors and Electric Avenue Gifts in downtown Bigfork; Sportsman Ski Haus in Kalispell and Whitefish; Bonelli’s Bistro in Kalispell; SM Bradford in Whitefish and Bigfork and The Glacier National Park Fund office in Columbia Falls.